Great post, Brian! Right on the money and answers a lot of our thoughts...or at least mine. And, its right on the subject, which I started on March 21st, but we've gone from the subject in your message to half a dozen other topics, it seems. So...good show, good show!

Advertise CaveChat on Fbook! And within your grottos, in newsletters,and in regional pubs and programs. And do it regularly. Put links on websites. A lot of new cavers probably never have heard of Cavechat, and they're the ones who would benefit the most.

GroundquestMSA wrote:It may be interesting too to think about the individuals that used to make Cavechat run. As with most everything, a relatively few active users were the bulk of the traffic. So, besides NZ, why do Todd Webb and Todd Hancock and Brian Connors and Steve Brewer and Evan Ghering and Andy Armstrong and Jeff Bartlett and Chad McCain and Bill Putnam and a handful of others not use this forum anymore? My guess is that the most of them "grew out of it". The arguments were fun, and a few really interesting issues were exhaustively discussed, but now they're done. This is ok. As I said earlier, the only bad part is that a new individual who pops up asking questions isn't going to get the benefit of the combined centuries of experience that used to speak here.

I cannot understand the effects of WNS and the clumsy running of the NSS on caver activity. Neither WNS nor anything the NSS has ever done or ever will do can have much effect on my own caving. I accept that the story is much different for others. But I do not think that the mass abandonment of this forum is reflective of a comparable abandonment of caving.

Hi Jonah (and everyone else as well)-I am still here from time to time, but have gotten somewhat distracted of late with politics. Hopefully the dark cloud will subside soon so that my attention can return to more trivial matters (caving). As it is now, I feel our country is at risk, and thus I've not been looking at CaveChat much, but have been focusing my attention elsewhere. Glad that a few folks are keeping the forum going; as far as I am concerned it is still the best platform for caver interaction on the internet. I will likely be back in full force soon, so I hope the rest of you haven't given up on it by then!

In it I say (pg 19)"Finally, investigate and learn. Visit the NSS website, join the NSS discussion forum (CaveChat.org), read books on techniques and speleology, and attend NSS conventions and regional caver events to meet and learn from experienced cavers."

This booklet and Fbook are probably our best avenues to introduce new cavers to CaveChat. For example, in less than a month after being uploaded to the NSS Website, the booklet had been downloaded almost a thousand times. Last year it was far and away the most visited web page on the NSS site, so the message is being distributed. The NSS distributes over 3,000 hard copies a year.

So I'd like to think there are a lot of new cavers who are CaveChat readers rather than participants, learning from all the good info in so many topics.

Cheryl - The new Guide to Responsible Caving is an excellent update to a classic. It's a comprehensive introduction to multiple facets of the caving experience. Glad to hear of so many downloads of the new version already. Well done!

Re: Cave Chat - I agree that, like many other things in life, it takes sustained effort to inform those new to the caving world of its existence. New people will perpetually appear, and we need to introduce them to it. It's a wealth of information and discussion not found elsewhere. Facebook has its place, but it doesn't really get into the in depth discussions one finds here. Facebook tends to be "cream skimming," while Cave Chat gets down into the whole milk (if that metaphor works).

I just recently hopped onto the cavechat bandwagon, so I certainly hope that participation doesn't do too much drying up! Seems like a great forum that has the potential to be an invaluable resource within the community.